Halloween and a getaway

For all the build-up in Emery's little mind about Halloween, I think it lived up to its fame. For weeks, even months, she was certain she would be her "blue ballerina," which is her favorite dress-up costume that she wears nearly everyday. I wasn't about to tell her that most kids get new costumes or have their moms make them something!

Handing out candy was almost as much fun, if not more, than peddling for some herself, though encounters with scary masks forced Emery to cover her eyes while still graciously offering a Kit Kat.

Then, over the weekend, Matt and I were able to get away for a night while Grammie tended to the girls. We did quite a bit of hiking and I felt quite a bit pregnant catching my breath up the hills. I also felt quite a bit pregnant when my chicken salad sandwich at lunch just wasn't good enough (I'm sure it was fine!) and I sent it back to the kitchen with no appetite for a re-do and then pouted at my lunch of french fries.

The fall colors were glorious, as was the peace and quiet and what seemed like a decadent number of extra hours to sleep, considering that we turned the clocks back on Saturday night AND traveled to the Central Time Zone! Now that's a 24-hour vacation worth repeating.

So close

I dropped the girls off at the gym's childcare this morning while I went for a run. When I returned to pick them up, the childcare workers said, "You should see her! (Anna Kimball) She took 12 steps!"

Woah. I've seen her take two steps here and there in the past week or so, but not 12! She's definitely not off and running yet and had only one other instance of consecutive steps today, but I would certainly say that we are so close to the real deal.

In other news, we took a little day trip to Bryson City, NC this weekend to see the fall colors. I was initially told by my dear husband that our destination was about two hours away ... let's just say it's a good thing I grabbed some DVDs at the last minute because two hours was really four. (in his defense, our return trip, via a different route, was much shorter) In my defense, I wanted a chance to actually enjoy the fall colors, too - not entertain two children with while getting a crick in my neck and an ache in my head.

But thankfully we had our new Routan minivan to deliver us to our destination, complete with a drop-down DVD player and headphones that the girls could actually use. We would up having a great time seeing some new things, eating out together, which we rarely do as a family, and making the most of autumn's beauty.

I love how this shot depicts our way home - Emery was pretty much no-maintenance with DVDs and a nap ... Anna Kimball, though, quickly tired of digital entertainment, wasn't really even that excited about finally facing forward in her car seat and eventually made sure we knew it. Nevertheless, the trip was a great success and one we'll surely repeat.

These days ...

Anna Kimball still isn't walking (20 months and nearly 30 pounds, OUCH), but is scaling everything, her favorite mountain being Emery's Tripp Trapp high chair which is particularly precarious and apparently really fun to climb. Somehow she has the good sense to mainly climb in when Emery is not around, perhaps knowing this could incite a wee bit of jealousy and "SHE'S IN MY SEAT!!" Anna Kimball is also obsessed with standing on stools. So now I have two full-time kitchen "helpers."

Emery is attending ballet class and seems to like but not love it. I almost loathe it since the whole experience is 90 minutes door-to-door on Friday afternoons in the height of traffic and I don't even get to watch her! And I'm quite certain she just stands there while all the other girls dance around ... she's not a big participator in situations like this. In the spirit of being positive, I'm sure it's been a good experience for her in some way and I'm sure we'll all be grateful to get our free Friday afternoons back in 4 weeks.

Emery loves her little co-op preschool on Wednesdays and Parent's Day Out on Thursdays. So happy I can leave her and Anna Kimball for that matter, too, in situations like these and we don't deal with separation anxiety. I think Anna Kimball enjoys a little break from her older sister, too. Though she adores her, currently all Emery has to do is look at her funny and Anna Kimball simply can. not. take. it. Commence SCREAMING. Commence me trying not to scream as well.

Lots of bread baking going on, too. I think I just like the feeling of having something tangible to show for my day, something I put my hands to and was good, sometimes even great, not just a work in progress as these girls, sweet as they are, seem to be.

Outnumbered!

Come March 20, 2014 (or thereabouts), the adults in this house will be outnumbered!

Are we scared? Sometimes. Excited? Yes. Going to find out the gender ahead of time? No. Matt's already outnumbered anyway. :) We'll take what we get!

A post without pictures

Yikes, it's been more than a month since I last posted. I think one reason I delay posting is because I feel that in order for it to be a worthwhile post, it must have many fantastic pictures. Which means I need to take those pictures. And harder still, find the patience to load them onto my computer, a process which always seems mind-numbingly laborious to me, probably because it reminds me of how disorganized my pictures are and how I have way too many on my phone and laptop and I really need a backup solution in case either device ever crashes ... etc. etc. etc.

As I type, Anna Kimball is screaming her head off in her crib, which is new for us. Emery never did this and we thought that was normal. Maybe now I'm beginning to realize that Anna Kimball is the normal one who occasionally and vigorously protests bedtime and Emery is from Mars.

The girls have been playing together more frequently these days and with a touch more peace and harmony. I love this development and though I sometimes feel sorry for Anna Kimball having to deal with Emery snatching her toys so often, I realize she's very fortunate to have someone to play with in the first place.

Emery starts ballet next week. I don't have grand hopes for her to adore it or for this to become her life's passion. She'll likely be reserved and spend more time watching everyone else prance around than doing the moves herself. I just can't wait to see her in a leotard, tights and slippers every week!

OK, time to console AK. Which never works, so why do I try???

And I lied. Here is an irresistible picture of our ballerina.

To Michigan and back

As usual, we headed up to Michigan for the 4th of July week. This year we drove and leaned heavily on digital entertainment for keeping the girls quiet and happy during the 10-plus hour drive. I decided that portable DVD players and iPads are like epidurals - though generations previous never had them and got along fine without, if they could do it over again, they'd take the DVD player ... and the epidural.

I'm happy to say the girls did wonderfully in the car. In fact, I think they even have been whining more at home this week than they did in the car. What's that all about? Isn't there some kind of "everything is new again and I'm going to be happy and easily entertained at home for a least a week" thing that's supposed to happen when you get home from vacation?

I guess not. Anyway, here are a few snapshots of our week:

This was taken almost as soon as we arrived - we simply moved Anna Kimball from the prison that was her carseat into an almost equally torturous lifejacket ... and she didn't mind one bit! So happy to be outside and on the water I think.

Chairs are a BIG obsession these days ...

Stopping for a sweet treat ...

On this cool, rainy afternoon I went down to the little beach Matt's parents have set up by the lake and found Emery in nothing but her underwear singing "Jesus Loves Me" to a pile of sand. Totally normal, right?

Our bottomless pit adored our favorite restaurant in Fenton, demolishing her french toast faster than you can say "We love Michigan in the summertime!"

The water table provided plenty of entertainment and also helped Anna Kimball with standing and sitting on her own.

All of us!

Other highlights of the trip included Anna Kimball learning to climb up and down the stairs, and then realizing she would rather be carried since all that climbing is too much work, finishing strong in the Fenton Firecracker 5K only to be bested by a high school freshman who sprinted past me at the end, getting an overnight with Matt at the Detroit Athletic Club, enjoying my first cronut and eating way too much ice cream. Or wait, maybe that's not possible?

We're a little delayed

 ... and not just with Anna Kimball's walking. Emery has been in a big girl bed for more than a year now. Granted it is a BIG big girl bed that takes a little care to get in and out of (i.e. climbing onto a bean bag at the end of the bed).

Still, Emery has been capable of doing so for some time now. But never once has she gotten out of bed during nap time or at night. She always waits for me to come get her.

Last night, though, her loud crying woke me up and I was puzzled as to why it was so loud. I rushed to her room only to find her right by her door, weeping that she wasn't tired and couldn't sleep.

I realize this is par for the course when it comes to having children. I only laugh that it took Emery this long to figure out her independence. And will now prepare myself for the night in the not-too-distant future that she actually makes it all the way to MY bed to announce her insomnia.